"When we base our actions on the premise that we are 'evil persons'--beings deserving annihilation--there is nothing whatever to be accomplished. How terrible it is that people in this world honor 'getting something accomplished'! Do they consider it praiseworthy for an evil person to accomplish evil? It should rather be said that it is good that one does not accomplish a thing. People often say admiringly of a person, 'He is a man of strong will.' This is another terrible and unintrospective statement. Do they consider it praiseworthy to perpetrate evil with a strong will?

"There is nothing whatever to be accomplished by an evil person. An evil person deserves annihilation...Shinran said, 'For a foolish, ordinary person full of desire and suffering, all things in this ever-changing world--this burning house--are false, empty, and untrue.' ...

"The evil person might as well be annihilated. He is just like a leaf being blown by the dry wind of autumn. This light quality--being shallow, unattached, easily blown away, and exactly the opposite of 'wanting to get something accomplished'--characterizes the human being who basis his life on the premise that 'I am an evil person.'

"There is nothing serious in such a person. If the evil person were to become serious, his evil would become more and more serious. How terrible that would be! All those who wear serious facial expressions, without exception, are showing that they are making their evil more and more serious. It is a hell of a danger. Thunderbolts are about to descend."

The Recognition of ImpermanenceShuichi Maida, translated by Nobuo Haneda​

“The recognition of impermanence liberates all. Liberation means becoming impermanence and working as impermanence itself. In that sense, all existing things are already liberated, just as they are, because they are already working as impermanence itself. Such things as plants, trees, fishes, and insects are already liberated. Only human beings experience (or awaken to) this liberation by recognizing impermanence. For an impermanent being to become aware of being an impermanent being is called recognition.“Thus the crucial question in life can be solved through recognition, not through actions or practice but simply through recognition. That is why it is said that liberation is not a matter of practice, but a matter of understanding. It is not in the future; it is in the present moment. Action, or what should be done, has something to do with the future. But liberation is in the eternal now. That is why I say that it is a matter of recognition. It is recognition, nothing else, that immediately enables us to cognize eternal life and thereby know that we are living in the eternal now.“When we go through the hundred-eighty degree turn in life because of recognition, a perfectly free life becomes possible. A perfectly free life is not a practice realized through our efforts; it is something that becomes possible because of recognition.”Oh, Ignorence!Haya Akegarasu, translated by Nobuo Haneda

"For a long time I wanted to know Shakyamuni's exact thought at the moment of his awakening. But I could not understand it. Initially I thought that Shakyamuni awakened to his Buddha-nature. This was probably so, but I could hardly understand that within the context of my own life.

"This year I have come to understand that Shakyamuni's exact thought at the moment of his awakening was expressed in his shout 'Oh, ignorance!' 'Oh ignorance!' means 'Oh, darkness!' When Shakyamuni said this, the devil that he saw face-to-face was not actually a devil in front of him, but was his own self. Thus his conquering the devil meant his becoming the devil. In this sense, Shakyamuni's exact thought at the moment of his awakening was his realization that 'I am the devil.' When he had this great awakening, a tremendous sphere of oneness--in which he became completely one with all things--opened up for him."